The following short plot hooks were originally intended to appear in the System Lords s ourcebook, but were dropped for space reasons. We are reposting them here for your convenience. Some of them make specific references to characters and locations in that book, but all of them can be adapted to more g eneric circumstances with minimal effort. They are organized alphabetically by the System Lord in question.
For some time Bastet has been slowly funneling a small number of ships from her space fleets off into smaller strike forces — known as the Claws of Bastet — which are poised to launch hit-and-run attacks on various rival System Lords. Unfortunately, one of the ambushes is scheduled to strike at a convoy of ships that are being used as a means of escape by a Tok'ra operative. If the attack succ eeds, the operative will surely be killed and the valuable information he carries will be lost. Unfortunately, were the operative to intervene in order to avoid the ambush his identity would be revealed and his life would be forfeit anyway. A team must stop the Claws of Bastet from staging the ambush and help get the Tok'ra to safety.
For some time, Bastet has used a sarcophagus kept in h er temple on Bubastis in order to prolong her life and heal from injury. Unfortunately, the war against Anubis has increased the danger of harm; fearing injury or de ath in an ambush, Bastet has ordered that her sarcophagus be transported from Bubastis to her mothership. If it could be captured, it would not only deal a significant blow to her but also could further the understanding of the way such technology functions.
Though most of the members of the Sekhmet s pecies have sunk into obscurity after no longer being needed as hosts, some speculate that the species might be turned against their former masters in the same way that humans and Unas have turned against the Goa'uld. Unfortunately, the Sekhmet are too scattered to be organized in to any kind of formal rebellion. However, the Asgard have recently discovered a planet that may be the original Sekhmet homeworld. If the inhabitants of this world could be convinced to fight alongside the Tauri against the Goa'uld, they could become yet another valuable ally.
Bastet's alliance with Kali has made the pair deadlier and more powerful than eve r. A third Goa'uld, whose identity has yet to be revealed, is seeking ent ry into such an alliance, hoping to increase his or her own holdings while providing Kali and Bastet with a third reliable friend. As a gift of goodwill, the petitioning Goa'uld is bringing a powerful weapon to Bubastis. If a team were able to infiltrate the summitand steal this ne w weapon, the alliance would be disrupted and their power base would not strengthen.
A contact of the SGC among the th e Tok’ra has asked that the Tauri send a team to retrieve an agent of theirs from the clutches of Cronus. The agent was on the verge of reporting back with information concerning a key portion of Cronus’ fleet, and any delay in his recovery will be deadly to the allies of the SGC. The Tok’ra also send along one of their number – number – a a scientist who has had little experience of battle – battle – with with the team, in order to ensure that their comrade is retrieved speedily and safely. The Tok’ra is held in Tartarus, a prison easily enough entered ne arly impossible to escape.
As the team attempts to travel through the corridors of Tartarus, they will notice that their charge becomes noticeably more agitated and loses her judgment swiftly. If questioned and some reading between the lines is done, she reveals that she is secretly in love with the spy they are rescuing, and has pressured her superiors into accompanying the team. Unfortunately, Cronus is one step ahead of them, and desires the secrets of the Tok’ra. The spy’s information was false, intended only to lure the scientist in after him to a trap. The party will have to stay on their toes to evade Cronus’ forces in the twisting tunnels of Tartarus, keeping their companion safe and rescuing the prisoner.
As a Goa’uld queen, Hathor is constantly searching for mates, donors of “superior” DNA wi th which to generate her next batch of larvae. She attempted to spawn using Dr. Jackson's DNA during her time at the SGC. This is consistent with Hathor’s previous reputation as a “love-goddess” and “mother of pharaohs.” It is believed that she has traded her offspring to other System Lords for favors and technology, as well as using them to build up her Jaffa armies. Keeping Hathor from creating any more Goa’uld should be a high priority, giv en the opportunity to either capture her or render her harmless.
Hathor possesses both an invisibility screen and a “Jaffa-making” device which could be of beneficial use to the SGC. Obtaining either piece of technology would be very difficult since their ex act locations are currently unknown. But the benefits of reverse-engineering the invisibility force field, or undoing the process that creates Jaffa (freeing them from their dependence upon the Goa’uld), would be extremely high. The Tok’ra hope to obtain either one or both of these items, as well as a method of defusing her nish’ta, and may r equire SGC assistance in assuring this goal at some point in the future.
A minor Goa'uld working as an agent of another System Lord h as been plotting revenge for mistreatment at the hands of his ally. Without the resources to attack a superior force, the Goa'uld approached Heru-ur and requested that he use his sizeable fleet to ambush the offending System Lord and exact revenge for wrongdoings. As part of the bargain, the minor Goa'uld will turn over a piece of technology left behind by the Ancients that can be used to create horrible plagues and diseases. Though the infighting between the Goa'uld is of little concern to the Tauri, stopping such a biological weapon from falling into the hands of a dangerous System Lord is.
The agents of the System Lords are not above using terror tactics to get what they want. A small group of saboteurs has been sent to Letopolis to knock out the a nti-gravity units that keep the capital city afloat. Unfortunately, an SG team is trapped there and has been forced to go undercover until a rescue team can be sent to bring them home. Additionally, if the saboteurs are not stopped thousands of lives will be lost in the ensuing disaster. Not only will the rescue team have to fight their way across a hostile city but they must either stop the saboteurs or get the trapped team off-world before the whole city plummets into the atmosphere.
Renowned for his space fleet and elite death glider corps, Heru-ur has commissioned the design and construction of an new death glider which would present a significant advantage in combat and increase his already-formidable might. However, that same prototype would be even more valuable to the Tauri, who greatly need new weapons
and technology to fight against the Goa'uld. A team is sent to Som a-Kesh to retrieve the prototype and bring it back to Earth for study.
A deep cover Tok’ra operative, posing as an underlord assigned to Mordred’s command, re ports troubling news which his superiors pass on to the SGC: the g eneral has planned a coup against Manannan and intends to execute it in the near future. Normally, the Tok’ra wouldn’t bat an eye — the more Goa’uld wiping one another out, the better — but this time, the ideal course of ac tion is unclear. Mordred is quite obviously power-mad; if he were suddenly to take the reins of an empire the size of Manannan’s, it could spell disaster. Is it better to see the System Lords thrown into temporary chaos but risk Mordred’s expansionistic policies, or to intervene and leave Manannan free to continue whatever long-range plans he has?
The PCs are given a routine first-manned-exploration assignment to an apparently uninhabited world designated P9D-278. MALP data indicates no evidence of sentient life, but suggests the presence of a large radiation source several miles from the Stargate; the mission objective is to investigate the anomaly and, if it’s unnatural, determine why it was created and abandoned. The planet is Annwn, and the radiation source is the generators which power Arawn’s headquarters. When the team arrives on the planet, they can get a reading on the radiation source. About a mile out from the Stargate, they’re ambushed by Cauldron-Born. Arawn’s surveillance personnel observe the fighting, and will dispatch hordes of zombie Jaffa to destroy the team if possible, and herd them toward the compound if not, but at all costs prevent them from fleeing back through the Stargate, including detonating the explosives to bury the DHD if necessary. Arawn’s primary objective is to prevent the team from returning with any information about his operations. He has almost innumerable Cauldron-Born at his disposal; the characters may not be outgunned, but if they try to rely on combat skill alone, Arawn will win by sheer force of numbers. What follows should play out like a Georg e A. Romero zombie film, with the characters torn between accomplishing their mission and escaping with their lives. If they make it into Arawn’s fortress and locate the reactors, a successful Electronics or Knowledge: Engineering check (DC 30) will allow them to trace the power conduits to the Cauldron.
A single army captain from Zigara succeeds in a cov ert mission to reach the Starga te and dial out to an address the jaffs recall as being forbidden by the false gods. Wounded, he makes it through to the safe haven of Cimmeria, and the Jaffa who follow are swept away by Thor’s Hammer. Once nursed back to health, the captain requests their help to defeat Bel’s forces. In turn, the Cimmerians recognize this as a threat from the ettins, and place the soldier in contact with Stargate Command.
With the aid of a ribbon device shield, Marduk was able to survive the explosion in The Tomb, but was buried beneath tons of rock. He would have expired if Anubis had not found him while searching for the Eye. Amused by his discovery, Anubis restored Marduk to health with the intention of inflicting tortur e and interrogation only to discover that the continual trauma had taken its toll. Marduk now believed himself to be Ramman, a minor lord of rain and thunder he had destroyed earlier in his career. It amused Anubis even further to take this “minor lor d” into his service, and to set him up as one of his many underlings. Placing him under the command of his agent Osiris,
with neither of them aware of their background together, he waits to see if Marduk will regain his true self, and what havoc he will cause when he does. If exposed directly to SGC personnel, Ramman may recover his original identity with a successful Inspiration check (DC 30). If he does, he will realize that his cur rent host, Major Vallarin, contains intimate details of the Tauri Stargate program. He is sure to use that knowledge to bargain his way back into power.
A random check of PR7-632 reveals the lack of a DHD at the far side. However, the MALP picks up the plea for help of one of Bel’s soldiers-in-training who is badly wounded. Equipped with a special bun dle including a portable generator, an SG team could render aid and be able to return by dialing manually. A rescue mission could turn deadly when the ability to dial out is demonstrated, and Tiamat’s monster Goa’uld at last come out of hiding.
A mission has gone disastrously wrong, and an SG team member has been captured by Morrigan’s forces to be added to her revolving collection of hosts. Now she is tucked away in a sarcophagus, watched over by the mad queen Danu in one of Morrigan's palaces on Eriu. A rescue team must re ach her before Morrigan returns from her latest campaign to usurp their colleague's life — and her knowledge of the SGC’s secrets.
Inspired by the rumors that have reached even Magtireth, a handful of apprentices flee in search of the gl orious Jaffa rebellion they are convinced is taking place out among the stars. Their g arbled versions of the resistance code phrase, together with their earnest fervor, eventually lead them to the rebel Jaffa, perhaps via contact with an SG team. The ragtag fugitives who greet them are a far cry from what they have imagined, but there is little time for disappointment as the boys’ Raven Guard masters catch up to them.
With a subversive movement already in place and the people of Gleanavar suffering under Evnith's oppressive rule, the insurrection inspired by the Tok'ra Sholred is ripe for repeating… and this time, with the help of the SGC, they just might be able to see it through. If the humanitarian concerns were not reason enough to risk involvement, there is also the matter of the naquadah mine — no longer the keystone of Morrigan's power that it once was, but still a viable resource, especially if modern techniques can be introduced in place of the current forced manual labor. SG team members will be needed at every step of the operation: contacting any subversive elements remaining among the people, defeating Evnith and her temple guards, and helping p rotect Gleanavar from Morrigan's return.
In a hidden underground laboratory on one of the countless worlds that Nirrti conducted her expe riments on, a timer ticks, awaiting Nirrti’s hand to reset it before it counts down to zero. When she does not appear, and the years-long count expires, the male host she once inhabited will come out of stasis, possessed by one of Nirrti’s more successful experiments; a genetic clone of her own symbiote. When an SG team comes upon this abandoned outpost, is it in time to prevent the awakening? Or will they become the “new” Nirrti’s first guests?
Jardia's customs developed in homage to a Goa'uld feared and hated even by her own kind — but they are still their customs. Arriving in the midst of the Festival of Death, an SG team is mistaken for emissaries of Nirrti. Putting that
misconception to rest is the easy part; how they deal with the festival itself will force them to grapple with some tough questions. Avoiding the conflict by leaving is not an option; only the “home” of the goddess, to which the Jardians send their offerings, may be dialed until the completion of the festival. Any attempt to stop the sacrifices of the living is met with horror by the faithful. The most curious team members — or those most determined to prove to the Jardians that Nirrti is dead and no longer receives their sacrifices — may wish to explore that destination.
The diminished fertility affecting many of the remaining Goa'uld queens has no single traceable cause, but one contributing factor may yet come to light: some of the worst afflicted have come into contact with a member of Zipacna's retinue by the name of Pamchadra. His days of hiding his origins may be numbered, however. As the birth rate continues to decline and the System Lords seek answers, someone could put two and two together. The secret of Nirrti's false queen — an abomination that could reverberate through Goa'uld politics for years to come — could also be of more than a little interest to their enemies. It might even be wor th their while to offer asylum — and worth Pamchadra's while to accept it.
Contagion Disease The Queen Plague*
Primary Phase CR Onset Time
Save
Damage / Effect
Secondary Phase Onset Time Save
17
Fort (22)
1 Int, 1 Wis, 1 Cha
1d6 months
1d20 days
Fort (25)
Damage / Effect 1d4 Int, 1d4 Wis, Become Barren
Nirrti’s machinations to produce a secret queen were less than totally successful, and produced an unexpected secondary effect. Though unaffected himself, Pamchadra carries a dormant retrovirus that is keyed to the genetic makeup of a Goa’uld queen. Other Goa’uld are unaffected, and even queens shown no ou tward signs of illness. However they suffer genetic damage that affects th eir mental state, and eventually renders them unable to spawn new larvae. If halted at the Primary Phase, the damage is reversible. Once progressing to the Secondary Phase, though, half of all losses are permanent. Should the Tok’ra discover the origins of the disease, they may seek Pamchadra initially as a weapon. Once they discover “his” true nature, however, their focus turns to a possibility they never dreamed of hoping for — creation of a new Tok’ra queen to replace their f ailing ranks. Will their tampering in Goa’uld genetics be any more successful than Nirrti’s? And at what cost will they pursue this goal?
Captured documents from the Goa'uld indicate Oyoro as a fertile planet with g reat potential resources and an easily controllable population. When the SG team finds a barren wasteland, however, further investigation may be in order. Two of the current “emperors” are battling fiercely for control of a small city near the Stargate, and the city itself is divided in its allegiance. The appearance of strangers will no doubt cause trouble on its own, but the growing rebellion also has leaders in this city, who will try to cover tly seek out the outsiders for assistance. They know the tales of the past greatness of their planet, and have deciphered some mythology they believe might help restore things to their long-ago glory. To make matters worse, the rebellion already has at least one m ember of the Cursor'va within it, who reports to a Jaffa “emperor” named Ahruk. Ahruk has taken his role on the planet more seriously than Olukun intended, and wishes to unite the planet under his rule, as well as decipher the workings of the ancient device that caused the devastation in the first place. The rebel leaders are unwittingly leading him right where he wants to go.
On several recent expeditions to planets with large bodies of water, wreckage of Goa'uld crafts and technology have been encountered. Close examination has revealed evidence of Ohne sabotage; apparently these troops had
recent assignments on the same small handful of water worlds… and if the SGC figures it ou t, chance are that Olukun will too. When a team comes to one of these worlds, the resident Ohnes will react instinctively against the surface dwellers, trying to capture and interrogate them through their memory-altering technology. After it becomes clear that the team is not from the System Lords, the Ohnes will relax and reveal a new tactic. They have been slowly using a variant of their memory-altering technology to create feelings of disloyalty in the Goa’uld’s servants. Recently, one of their targets was the world Gualun. Unfortunately, none of their team has returned from their mission. They are beginning to suspect there is more to that world than meets the eye. The truth is even worse than it appears . The Cursor'va have captured two members of the Ohnes team on Gualun, and are interrogating them. It is only a matter of time before one of them is broken, and reveals not only the location of the Ohnes’ base, but the fact that they have seen the ancient device of which Olukun seems so very protective.
The team arrives on Aegis for the first time, on a day reserved for physical competition among Spartans. The Aegisians see the team’s arm patches and note the resemblance to the Spartan Lambda, believing them to be guests or agents of their god, Pelops. They are invited by Queen Helen personally to join in the contests: running, discus and javelin, hand to hand combat, broad jumping, etc.. Declining her invitation immediately raises Helen’s suspicions, and she is very good at getting to the bottom of o ther people’s secrets…
The SGC is contacted by the Tok’ra, who h ave received a strange communication from an operative they believed long dead. The operative, Shevak, was using the name Acastus while spying on the activities of a minor System Lord named Pelops. Contact was lost with Shevak over 40 ye ars ago, but a signal was recently received through a secret network, and it has the right codes to authenticate Shevak as the sender. He indicates that th e Goa’uld queen Anat will be traveling to meet with Pelops, probably to forge an alliance and grant Pelops access to her symbiotes for his Jaffa army. In his message, Shevak suggests that this alliance should be prevented, which presents an opportunity to capture or kill both a System Lord and a Goa’uld queen. The Tok’ra claim that they do not have any operatives available, and request that the SGC check it out. In truth, some discrepancies in the codes have made the Tok’ra wary that this may be a trap, and they are reluctant to risk one of their o wn being captured. What neither the Tok’ra nor the characters know is that the message comes from Que en Helen, using her fragmentary memories of Shevak’s past to (imperfectly) forge the message. She has learned that she is to be the host for Pelops’ new queen, and she is not as honored as she has led Pelops to believe. She hopes the Tok’ra can save her from this fate. The characters will be able to arrive by Stargate at a specific time, which Shevak’s message indicates will be safe. Queen Helen has arranged for the area to be clear at that time, though the characters will be secretly observed and shadowed by Galen. Pelops will arrive by Stargate the following day. Anat will arrive by transport ring from her orbiting vessel the day after that. Both Spartans and Anat’s personal Jaffa guards will be present in force during the ceremonial meetings. The characters’ orders are to locate and retrieve Shevak if possible, to determine if attacking or disrupting the alliance would be prudent, and to carry out actions based on that assessment. Queen Helen will be very reluctant to admit to being the source of the message unless she faces death or forceful removal from Aegis.
A new Goa'uld has emerged, claiming to be Ra returned from the dead. He seems to possess all the knowledge and talents of Ra, and even knows of certain secret caches of resources hidden away by the System Lord before his death. Having convinced a number of Jaffa that he is indeed the r esurrected Sun God, this new System Lord has begun to reclaim territory that once belonged to R a. Though he puts up a convincing front, the new Ra is actually the offspring of the original Ra that possesses all of his genetic memories (which he is using to seize power).
Ra often surrounded himself with human children to be used as servants. They were indoctrinated with propaganda and remained unflinchingly loyal to their god. They acted as human shields should Ra ever be threatened and could be called upon at any moment to serve their god faithfully. When the original Abydos expedition killed the System Lord, these children were left behind and integ rated into the Abydonian society. Unbeknownst to the Tauri or the Abydonians, many of them grew up planning revenge for the death of their beloved god and could begin launching attacks against Earth and Abydos using their knowledge of Goa'uld technology and a fierce religious fervor brought about by their devotion to Ra.
Ra constantly planned for the eventuality of his own defeat and frequently stowed away massive amounts of resources should he ever need to fight back against a usurper. With his death, most of these caches fell into the hands of rival System Lords, such as Anubis, or were forgotten entirely. One such cache lay in the most unlikely of places: on the planet Earth, buried deep in an obscure temple in the middle of the Sahara desert. It contains hundreds of staff weapons, zat'nik'tel, and shak'nel just waiting to be claimed. When a group of radical militants begins raiding tombs in search of rare artifacts to fund their war, they stumble across this cache and the powerful weapons within. Now, armed with Goa'uld technology, they pose a danger that could not only give them a considerable military advantage but also threatens to expose the existence of the Stargate.
Before his discovery of Earth, Ra was said to be part of a dying race in dire need of a new host body. In truth, he had actually inhabited the body of an Asgard by the name of Famrir whose gen etic makeup was slowly rejecting its Goa’uld symbiote — forcing the System Lord to seek a new host or die. When he took a young human boy as a host, his Asgard host was spirited away by a Tok'ra operative within the System Lord's ranks. The Asgard welcomed Famrir back and used their advanced technology to heal him. However, memories of serving as host to the vile System Lord drove him mad and he st ruck out on a violent crusade to wipe out th e Goa'uld. Famrir continues to lead reckless assaults on the System Lords with little car e what happens to innocents that might get in the way.
Rumor has it that eons ago Sokar convinced a Goa'uld scientist to improve upon the sarcophagus design in order to truly grant him the power of life and death. The new sarcophagus was capable of reviving the dead long after they had expired; where the normal sarcophagus can only revive those that h ave died recently and have much of their bodies still intact, this new type of sarcophagus could revive the dead from ev en the most desiccated of corpses. Though none have been able to confirm its existence, others insist that it must exist due to the fact that Goa'uld that have been dead for weeks, even months, have re appeared in the service of Sokar. Many suspect that this super sarcophagus is housed in the Shrine of Apep on Necropolis, which is why the System Lor d refuses to allow any other than himself to get close.
An artifact of ancient Egypt, the Book of the Dead details much of the darker side of the mythology of the ancient Goa'uld. The tome left behind on Earth is not the true Book of the Dead , at least not the one possessed by Sokar. The real Book of the Dead is a massive tome listing every being interred on Necropolis, completely cataloguing its residents. Moreover, the book contains various notes and scientific discoveries Sokar developed over th e years, from portable particle cannons to incredibly potent poisons. Jaffa myth says that if Sokar writes a person's name in the book that they will die within one week; others, especially Tok'ra scientists, claim that the book itself is a device that produces poisons catered to an individual being's DNA, allowing the System Lord to kill a single person with the poison from the book without it ever being detected. Its whereabouts following the System Lord’s death are unknown, but quite a few people would be interested in obtaining it…
Yu’s illness (once confirmed by the SGC) presents certain challenges: does Earth want to help the dying System Lord maintain control of his realm? Previous dealings with Yu have not all been benefi cial: he was behind the attack on the rebel Jaffa army on Imhotep’s planet, and he backed out of the alliance against Anubis with no explanation. He is no longer a stable ruler, and if he falls, the disposition of his kingdom could go to any one of a dozen minor lords and children within his regime… or worse, another System Lord like Anubis. On the other hand, if the SGC conspires to ease him off the throne and replace him with another Goa’uld (or possibly Tok’ra) a powerful ally could come to the fore.
Queen Xiwangmu’s continued search for immortality and her restored youth is both a possible way in to Yu’s court, and a reason for concern. If she gains access t o an alien technology that can restore a Goa’uld dying of old age — or if her scientists modify the sarcophagus to greater efficiency — then the lifespan of the Goa’uld will again be nearly infinite. Her application of the technology to herself and Lord Yu could have unforeseen effects on his rule, as well as provide a lure to other System Lords to either enter alliances or attack, seeking the new source of immortality.
Shin Kun and his supporters are seeking to counteract Lord Yu’s illness by camouflaging the weakness their lord can no longer hide himself. Simultaneously, some of the Jaffa are beginning to question the entire System Lord regime, losing faith in the Goa’uld. While most of them would be unlikely to join an outrig ht rebellion, they might consider taking over Lord Yu’s territories if they could protect themselves from immediate reprisals from the rest of the Goa’uld.
An SG team could discover the address to the Stargate on Olympus, where they find every one reveling in an enormous celebration. With a bit of looking they discover Zeus and Heracles among the party-goers. In their present mood, the Goa’uld and his First Prime appear approachable, perhaps even friendly and beneficial. If this occurs, Zeus will use their trust to gain what he can from them — such as giving them the co-ordinates of a critical system controlled by a known “evil” Goa’uld, who just happens to be a rival of Zeus’. In all likelihood the SG team will kill the rival Goa’uld or themselves be captured or killed. Either way, when Z eus tires of them, or has no further use for them, he will attempt to eliminate them. Your Help is Not Required In the wake of Cronus’ death, Zeus is expanding his empire, and may claim a world which the SG team has already
cleared of Goa’uld. The SGC would either have to re turn to the planet and eliminate this new threat to the natives, or let them suffer under his rule. Once the SG team arrives they discover the people do not want to be freed from Zeus’ rule, considering him a beneficial lord who protects them from the other System Lords. At this point the SG team will either have to abandon the natives to a potentially devious Goa’uld or overthrow the System Lord in such a way which does not raise the natives’ ire.
